For this text I won't provide transcription. I want you to be slow. (Comment if the document isn't accessible for you, and why. I will find a solution)
https://odd.keks.li/pvd_thinking_slowly.pdf (https://odd.keks.li/pvd_thinking_slowly.pdf)
If you don't know how to interprete these letters (my handwriting is atrocious) consult this chart: Fraktur-script Alphabet (https://farbcafe.de/wp-content/uploads/031-Frakturschrift-Alphabet-%C3%9Cbersicht.pdf)
Try making an applejack. Freeze distillation is safe and accessible, and having a bottle of homemade high proof apple flavor is a precious joyous thing.
We have one brewing right now. Bunch of culinary apples, molasses, turbinado sugar simple syrup, and a sugar extraction from pomegranate (including oils and juices). It would be a boring cider, which makes it an ideal applejack. We plan to distill on dry ice when this insane yeast calms the fuck down, and I expect we can get to a 60% ABV. Backsweeten to 50% ABV with a strong simple syrup, bottle and enjoy. I plan on basically having molasses-applejack spritzes: dollop of molasses, ice, applejack, sparkling water, quick stir, enjoy.
We also have a perry-cider-something brewing up from culinary apples, pears, grapefruit, and white sugar. It'll be a really good drink when we stabilize and backsweeten, the grapefruit will provide the sour and bitter you want in a quality cider and the pears will add some good vegetal notes. I think it'll be good for summer evenings.
I always think slow. I think fast, too, but the two processes are begun simultaneously and I've learned to distrust the fast thoughts.
Fall 2022 I had far too many apples to deal with, so I tried making cider.
That turned out well; but fall 2023 the tree gave me almost nothing, so I decided to try making mead instead, and use up the nanking cherries.
My traditional mead (made mostly for the learning experience) is almost three months old, I'm just waiting for it to clarify. After the second racking, I think I've got too much headspace in the carboys; hopefully it won't oxidize, but time will tell.
I have a two-month-old nanking cherry melomel near the end of primary fermentation (starting to stall at 14.9% ABV). I'll apply what I learned with the trad and try to manage headspace better, and maybe add sulfites to keep the spectre of oxidization at bay.
My mistake with the melomel was not putting the fruit in a bag. I now have a bucket with three gallons of pulpy melomel, with floaty bits on top, and fruit sludge on the bottom. Racking this without plugging the siphon is going to be interesting.
As with gardening, brewing is slow. It takes weeks and months to discover one's mistakes.
Quote from: ein Gefrorener Würfel on March 06, 2024, 09:29:49 PMFor this text I won't provide transcription. I want you to be slow. (Comment if the document isn't accessible for you, and why. I will find a solution)
https://odd.keks.li/pvd_thinking_slowly.pdf (https://odd.keks.li/pvd_thinking_slowly.pdf)
If you don't know how to interprete these letters (my handwriting is atrocious) consult this chart: Fraktur-script Alphabet (https://farbcafe.de/wp-content/uploads/031-Frakturschrift-Alphabet-%C3%9Cbersicht.pdf)
That font certainly makes me read slowly.
I tried to make mead with less alcohol by using only a 3rd of the honey, let it ferment, clarify and remove the yeast, and then add some more honey. But forgot to stop the remaining yeast properly so it started again after I filled it into bottles and I had a small explosion after a few days (luckily the bottle was still in the Kitchen and it was easy to clean up).
Another fun alcohol experiment I've tried the results of was fermenting lime syrup. Cut up limes into sugar (and keep the peels and rinds on them) and wait until it turns to liquid. Add more sugar until the sugar stops dissolving. Take your resulting sugar-lime-concoction, do the normal SG etc stuff and brew it up. Start your yeast before adding it, it needs to already be pretty happy before it goes into the acid stew.
Make sure to stabilize when it's done, so it doesn't continue to ferment it to pure alcohol. You need some sweetness in there. Keep refrigerated, sealed and out of the light, or the flavors will degrade. But it's worth it.
Once you have this stuff, I recommend trying it straight first (It is truly delicious), then making a jank ass Cuba libre. My recipe is to build over ice in the glass with: a kitchen spoonful of second molasses, two or three ounces of the lime stuff, stir, and lengthen to full with Coca-Cola. It's insane to put the alcohol into the lime and separate the molasses out, but it tastes heavenly.
That sounds really nice. I will try it sometime.